Fornaroli claims long-awaited victory in F2 Silverstone sprint race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Leonardo Fornaroli claimed his first victory for more than four years in a fraught Formula 2 sprint race at Silverstone.

Drama began before the lights even blinked out as Hitech’s Dino Beganovic stalled ahead of the formation lap. The Ferrari junior would have started third but was forced to take the start from the pitlane.

Fornaroli was jumped at the start by Kush Maini who started second but led the field into Abbey. The Invicta Racing driver regained his lead though with a spectacular move heading out of Woodcote and into Copse.

After a poor start, second-in-the-championship Alex Dunne found himself in 11th battling with Gabriele Mini. A lock-up into Farm Curve left the Rodin driver vulnerable to an attack from Mini around the outside of the Loop.

The pair made contact with Dunne suffering a puncture and later retiring from the race. Mini would receive a 10-second penalty having been deemed to have caused the collision.

By lap 13, Fornaroli had pulled a big enough gap to escape Maini’s DRS range and the Indian driver was now vulnerable to Montoya behind.

By lap 15 the Prema driver was alongside the DAMS car heading into Stowe and passed Maini on the inside. With seven laps to go Montoya was left with a 1.9-second gap to close to Fornaroli up ahead.

Maini meanwhile was dropping back and began to back the pack up. With four laps to go just three seconds separated Maini in third and Lindblad in 11th.

In the closing laps of the race, Stanek passed Maini around the outside of Stowe to gain third; a controversial move as the Czech driver appeared to pass off the track but maintained third.

Further back, Williams junior duo Luke Browning and Victor Martins, battling over seventh place, made contact heading out of Woodcote. Browning, looking to pass on the outside, found himself squeezed and pitched into the side of the Frenchman.

The British driver suffered front wing damage but it was Martins who dropped down the order following the contact as he fell out of the points scoring positions.

Back in the middle of the field, heading into the final corner, Oliver Goethe made contact with Pepe Marti sending the Dutch driver spinning across the grass at Club.

Fornaroli, whose only previous single-seater win had come in June 2021 in Italian Formula 4 at Misano, crossed the line with a 1.4-second gap over Montoya with Stanek completing a double podium for Invicta.

Maini remained under pressure from Joshua Duerksen but held fourth place to the line. Duerksen in turn came under pressure from Jak Crawford, the pair crossing the line wheel-to-wheel separated by just a thousandth of a second.

Browning came home in seventh while championship leader Richard Verschoor secured the final points paying position following the dramatic conclusion to the race.

Race results (21 laps)